Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [224]
Beware of bus or minivan services from Th Khao San in Bangkok that advertise a free night’s accommodation in Chiang Mai if you buy a Bangkok to Chiang Mai ticket. What usually happens on arrival is that the ‘free’ guesthouse demands you sign up for hill treks immediately. The better guesthouses don’t play this game. Theft can also be a problem on the buses that originate in Bangkok’s Th Khao San.
Many less expensive guesthouses in Chiang Mai will sometimes evict guests who don’t engage trekking tours. Most places are pretty forthcoming with their policies on this and will usually offer rooms to non-trekking guests for a limited period.
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SIGHTS
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Old City
Chiang Mai’s historic quarter is tightly bound by old ways with a semi-gloss of modernity. The two-lane roads are now traversed by cars and motorcycles instead of bicycles and horse-drawn carriages, but the slow-moving pace of non-motorised travel still sets the communal clock. The buildings are human-scaled and reserve the highest elevation for the temple stupas that peak out over the rooftops. These temples were built with teak money and reflect the aesthetics of an ancient trade dependent on the forest: subdued colours of red earth artfully festooned with gold leaf. Small bells decorating the eaves tinkle in the morning wind before the motorcycle engines awake. With its many temples, it is easier to save your mortal soul than to accomplish more earthly errands like buying toiletries.
The narrow footpaths see a regular flow of temple-spotters as well as orange-robed monks (sidewalk space should be ceded to the boys and men of the cloth and women should step into the street to avoid an accidental brush), and off the main roads are meandering lanes through residential neighbourhoods filled with gardens and fragrant flowers.
All roads eventually lead to the old city wall, in some parts preserved or rebuilt and in other parts so worn and rounded by time that it looks more like a sunbathing lizard. The one-way roads that circumnavigate the moat are a jolt of big-city energy packed with speeding machines belching blue smoke.
WAT PHRA SINGH
Chiang Mai’s most visited temple, Wat Phra Singh (Map; 0 5381 4164; Th Singharat; donations appreciated) owes its fame to the fact that it houses the city’s most revered Buddha image, Phra Singh (Lion Buddha), and it has a fine collection of classic Lanna art and architecture.
Despite Phra Singh’s exalted status, very little is actually known about the image. Legend says that it originally came from Sri Lanka, but it is not particularly Sinhalese in style. It is, in fact, considered one of the most beautiful examples of Lanna religious art thanks to its thick human-like features and lotus-shaped topknot. It does, however, have the usual travel itinerary of a famous Buddha, having been moved from Sukhothai, Ayuthaya, Chiang Rai and Luang Prabang either to elude looters or as a prized piece of booty. Because there are two nearly identical images in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Bangkok, no one knows if this is the real one, nor can anyone document its place of origin. Regardless, this Phra Singh image came to reside here in around the 1360s and today is a fixture in the religious ceremonies of the Songkran festival.
Phra Singh is housed in Wihan Lai Kham, a small chapel to the rear of the temple grounds next to the chedi. The exterior chapel displays the Lanna characteristics of a three-tiered roofline and carved gables. Inside, the temple features sumptuous lai·krahm (gold pattern) stencilling on its interior back wall. On the north wall, a worn mural depicts the Thai fairy tale ‘Sangthong’, about an exiled prince who was hidden by his mother in a conch shell. A small figure above one of the windows is thought to be a self-portrait of the artist, an ethnic Chinese